EFF Petitioned To Investigate Windows 10 Upgrades (change.org)

An anonymous reader writes: One of the most frustrating things about the ongoing stream of stories about Windows 10 upgrades is that there seems to be no way to hold Microsoft to account. Or perhaps there is: a petition asking the Electronic Frontier Foundation to investigate has now been posted on Change.org.
The petition argues "people are being tricked or forced into upgrading to Windows 10 from their current, preferred version of Windows," and describes Microsoft's actions as "ignorantly unethical at best and malicious at worst."

Comments

Here is how to hold Microsoft accountable

[flacco]

- Back up your data files
- Wipe that abusive shit operating system off your machine
- Install Linux.

Don't look back.

Re:Here is how to hold Microsoft accountable

[houstonbofh]

Until this situation improves, if it ever does, we still need to have a Windows boot option.

As long as you use the Windows boot option, it will not improve. I have Steam on Linux, and a backlog of games to play that I bought on sale. (Note that borderlands 2 and then borderland the Pre Sequel back to back really is too much...) I will no longer spend money on games that will not run on my computer.

Re: Here is how to hold Microsoft accountable

[Anonymous Coward]

Pray tell, how exactly am I supposed to run all the software I need on a daily basis to, you know, actually make money and shit?

WINE isn't complete enough to handle 100% of the applications out there. Sooner or later you land up fiddling around with some "garbage" rated application, and your only choice then is to give up or dive into the source code yourself and implement all the missing pieces.

VMware Workstation and VBox have working rudimentary 3D acceleration, but it's not enough to support anything high end when running serious workloads.

ReactOS isn't Linux, but at least it's not really Windows either- not that it matters because you can't run anything significant on it in the first place.

I guess there's Apple, but they're busy running amok doing their own thing again (ie, with Metal, instead of actually writing a decent OpenGL stack and producing reasonably powerful hardware), plus they don't give a shit about backwards compatibility.

So... What is the solution?

Are you suggesting I should install Linux for... what? Browsing the internet and checking my email? Just reboot back into Windows 7 whenever I need to get some work done? What exactly does Linux solve for me, as a working professional, who needs access to a stable platform that can run a wide variety of commercial software packages? Am I just supposed to give up my freelance business and go open source because it's better to be free then to be able to actually do something with your computer?

What exactly is your point here?

Re:Here is how to hold Microsoft accountable

[houstonbofh]

What is the motivation to write a Linux port if they will get your money anyway?

Re: Here is how to hold Microsoft accountable

[chipschap]

Are you suggesting I should install Linux for... what?

I can't answer that question for you, but for me, the answer is "to get all my work done" as I've in fact done for 15+ years. Now, 15 years ago, it was much more of a struggle. Today, there is so much software for Linux that I seldom have to look very far. Office suite, graphics, audio processing, typesetting and desktop publishing, OCR, and on and on--- everything I need to do what I do.

I know there are specialized apps and games that don't run on Linux, and I know that Wine and even VMWare are not always good solutions. I know that some people legitimately need to run Windows, or simply want to run Windows.

But I do submit that the number of cases in which the claim is made that the job can't get done on Linux is more a function of not wanting to, rather than not being able to.

There's only one way to fix Microsoft

[JustNiz]

It boggles my mind how people rightly complain about this and all the other abuses by Microsoft, then go right out and buy another PC with Windows.Self-inflicted much?

Jeez people just vote with your wallet already.

Wrong priorities

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Yes, Microsoft is being too aggressive, however I feel this is less important than finding out what is being sent via the telemetry service. I will not use Windows 10 because many of the projects I work on are under NDA. How do I know Windows isn't sending out info to the mothership that, in essence, violates that NDA? What if Windows is sending a list of all the folders on my hard-drive? An employee of theirs might see that and go "Hey, this guy is working on the Nintendo NX*! I'm going to post this to the rumors sites!" That's the sort of thing that could get me, my colleagues, and the companies I work for in trouble.

* I am not working on anything Nintendo related, I just plucked that example out of the air.

Just update your computer and stop whining!

[slasher999]

These complaints are coming from the same noisy minority who will ignorantly blame Microsoft or anyone else when their computer is infected by some exploit that would have been prevented had they kept it up to date.

YASP (Yet Another Stupid Petition)

[BarbaraHudson]

The EFF has zero enforcement powers. And petitions are useless. Real change happens in the courts, or by you changing your own behavior so as to not buy their products. Petitions are for slackers.

Re:What is the EFF supposed to investigate?

[ClickOnThis]

The EFF does not have investigative powers, but it does have investigative talent, and a recognized history of advocacy for consumers.

Re:What is the EFF supposed to investigate?

[kheldan]

It won't be the first time that Microsoft has misbehaved on a scale that required some sort of large legal action. An organization like the EFF has enough credibility that if they 'investigate' the situation, find serious problems, and start talking to the right people, they'll be heard and something on an official level will be started. Random tech geeks complaining on an internet discussion forum aren't going to get anything done on their own, especially when 99% of the computer-using public don't even understand the problem when you try to explain it to them, they think they're just getting something that costs hundreds of dollars for free, and since the malware aspects of Windows 10 is silent, they don't even know how they're being taken advantage of with hardware they bought and paid for with their own money.

Re:What is the EFF supposed to investigate?

[im_thatoneguy]

What exactly would they even charge them with.

"Hey assholes, stop updating and maintaining your flagship product!"

This would set a really really bad precedent if they somehow did find Microsoft Legally guilty of something. What would that something be? Illegally updating code without consent? Downloading a bit without explicit consent?

Issue a security patch, have it install automatically: lawsuit.
Replace certificate in keychain: lawsuit.
Cache website before it's clicked on: lawsuit.
Download email automatically using default settings: lawsuit.

It's also incredibly ironic that Google is criticized for failing to keep the OS up to date on most devices causing fragmentation and Microsoft is criticized for failing to allow their OS to become fragmented. I'm sure most people with an Android device wished they had the problem "Google keeps ensuring every device gets the latest version of Android."